Carnivale

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Branch

Tsuna and Kyouko's children take over the Vongola after them, and their daughter Mari becomes the Eleventh. Like every generation before, they have to deal with the legacy and the problems the last generation has left. There is art of the children by Gray Queen here. Arc may or may not be completed.

Ink Burns

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

This is a work of fanfiction, produced according to the principles of transformative fair use as put forward in US copyright law, and abiding by the custom and practice of fan-produced work in Japan, where the source texts were created. No author is in any way affiliated with any of the creators of the source texts, nor with the companies who distribute their products, nor any other rights holder, and these stories were not authorized by either the creators or the producers. Ink Burns is a fan site and the material here is freely provided for the enjoyment of fellow fan-community members; there is no commercial infringement.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 US license at the Ink Burns fanfiction archive (http://www.branchandroot.net/archive/).

"The Queen and All Her Men" published on 2009-07-07 11:43:22.

"Exigencies of Service" published on 2009-07-08 14:27:22.

"Festivity" published on 2009-07-21 15:57:04.

"Relative Values" published on 2009-07-08 17:50:17.

"The Overarching Sky" published on 2009-07-09 13:08:44.

"Appendix - the Vongola Eleventh Generation" published on 2009-07-09 13:43:52.

"Over, Under or Around" published on 2009-07-14 14:25:57.

"Two Birds" published on 2010-01-04 16:04:24.

Attributions can be made by author's name and a link to the archive.

This ebook edition was published on September 6, 2019 by the Ink Burns fanfiction archive.

Cover illustration is "Autumn in Argentueil" by Claude Monet, public domain (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monet_-_Herbst_in_Argentueil.jpg).

Cover design by Branch.

The Queen and All Her Men

A series of linked shorts that follows Lys ap Adin's "What to Expect When You're Expecting". Kyouko and Tsuna's first child is a daughter. She's soon followed by a lot of brothers, and the mafia world may be in for a big surprise—provided the Vongola themselves survive the experience. Drama with Humor and Domesticity, I-3

First Step

Kyouko still thought Sicilians had strange ideas about their ceremonies, but at least she could understand this part of the christening perfectly well—the part where Vongola and their allies, and a few who weren't either, gathered to chat and politic on the lawn, all come to see her firstborn. She smoothed the white folds of her daughter's long gown and smiled up at Haru, who had brought her a cup of tea.

"Both of you holding up?" Haru murmured, bending down to check her new goddaughter.

"As well as can be, so far," Kyouko said. "I'm thankful she's slept through most of this."

Haru laughed. "She's probably saving up for later."

"Oh, don't suggest things to her," Kyouko almost moaned. Mari had only just started sleeping through most nights.

"After today's excitement, she'll probably sleep well, even after a nap," Caterina Modigliani said, drifting over. "It seems your difficulties are all ironed out, with this; with the bearing, at least." Her eyes ran casually over the guests. "They're all changing their plans now, sorting through their sons in hopes one will be the true Eleventh boss of the Vongola."

"And you aren't? Donna Caterina?" Kyouko murmured, a steel edge under the softness of her voice.

Caterina laughed. "My son already has a Family waiting for him."

True enough. "Their plans will have to fit reality." Kyouko settled Mari in her arm. "My child is a Vongola."

"Indeed," Caterina murmured, approval glinting in her eyes. "How could she be otherwise?"

Kyouko nodded and looked out over the guests herself, cradling her daughter and heir.

Sugar and Spice

"Uncle Onii-san!"

Tsuna and Ryouhei both blinked and Kyouko laughed softly. "Well, that is what both of us call him," she murmured. "Uncle Ryouhei," she pronounced for Mari, who cocked her head.

"Uncle Ryouhei," she repeated carefully and looked up at her mother's face with a small copy of Tsuna's thoughtful expression that made Kyouko smile and stroke back her daughter's hair. "Okay." She wriggled to be let down and, when Kyouko set her on her feet, made her way across the room to take a hold of her godfather's sleeve, examining him. "Uncle Gokudera?" She looked back at her mother for confirmation, and missed the helpless softening of Gokudera's face.

"Yes, I think that's right," Kyouko agreed with an impish smile. "That's your Uncle Gokudera."

"She's going to have the entire Family wrapped around her little finger, isn't she?" Yamamoto murmured, laughter running under his voice.

Mari looked at him and declared, more confidently, "Uncle Yamamoto."

"She has a good start on it," Gokudera observed, as Yamamoto's smile turned sweet. Kyouko was careful to keep her smugness off her own face.

The brightness of the moment was interrupted a bit when the door opened on Xanxus. "Sawada," he said, peremptorily, "I need a decision about the Leone. Now."

Tsuna sighed, pulling himself back into into his job, and was just standing when Mari walked over to Xanxus, looked up at him, and nodded firmly. "Uncle Xanxus." She smiled, pleased.

There was a breath of absolute silence while Xanxus stared down at her with the most floored expression Kyouko had ever seen on a human face.

It was broken by Yamamoto collapsing into a chair, laughing too hard to stand.

Kyouko came and picked her daughter up and smiled serenely at Xanxus. "Yes," she said, thoughtfully. "I think you're right again, Mari. This is your Uncle Xanxus." She met his eyes, unbending, and he was the one who looked away.

Her daughter would lead the Vongola one day, with both her father's strength and her mother's.

"So what I don't get," Mari crossed her arms, stubbornly, "is why it's isn't obvious that our way is better! I mean, didn't Uncle Dino make his Family rich again, and the second strongest in the alliance, by taking care of the civilians in his territory? Why is this so hard to get? You and Father say we can't change people's minds for them, but I don't see why not."

Uncle Gokudera gave her a long look over his glasses and sat back from the stack of books and journals of mafia history they'd been going over. "Well, what if we did? What if we went to war with the Furetto and, when we won, told them 'you have to stop the drugs and protection schemes in your own territory'?"

Mari felt a strong urge to pout. "I guess they wouldn't want to. But they should!"

Uncle Gokudera shrugged. "And we could probably make them do it. But only by taking over their territory ourselves." He gave her a crooked smile. "And if we come in, having killed the Family in charge, how do you think the civilians would look at us?"

"Better than the old one?" But it was a grumble, because she knew it wouldn't work that way. She slouched down in her chair. "Why do people have to be so dumb?"

"Because they don't know any better, yet." Uncle Gokudera got up and came around the table to kneel down by her chair and rest his hands on her shoulders. "You're going to be the Eleventh, Mari-san. I know it's hard, but you have to have patience. We can't make things better by force; that isn't the way that lasts."

She wanted the better to last. That was what she was here for. She straightened up and looked her godfather in the eye. "Show me how we do it, then."

He smiled and tapped the stack of books. "We're getting there."

Mari sighed. Yes, she'd thought that might be the answer.

High Energy States

Yamamoto slipped in the side door and closed it quietly behind him. Ryouhei laughed to see the small form draped over Yamamoto's shoulder.

"What did he get into this time?"

Yamamoto's mouth quirked up. "He wanted to help cook. I'm pretty sure he was hoping for a share of the pastries, but he was a little late in the day for that so he wound up helping Ettore with dinner instead."

"Helping, huh?" Ryouhei grinned; they'd all learned, as soon as Daisuke started walking, that the boy's helpful streak was only matched by his no-brakes enthusiasm. Ryouhei approved; it was clearly Kyouko's side of the family coming through. "He wear himself out, then?"

Yamamoto looked a bit rueful. "Well, he wound up snitching enough of the grilled tuna and then enough of the marzipan left over from Kyouko-san's tea that he got a little sick. So Ettore gave him a little wine to settle his stomach, and, well..." He shrugged the shoulder that didn't have a small boy slung over it.

"Kyouko's going to kill you, you know," Ryouhei pointed out, laughing.

Now Yamamoto chuckled. "A few times, probably. But it's just how Daisuke is; it's no use trying to stop him from being himself." He carried his godson off to bed and Ryouhei smiled after them. It was a good thing his nephew had Yamamoto to look out for him.

Otherwise, none of them might survive the kid growing up.

Daisuke eyed the study door. He was pretty sure this was where his sister was hiding. Haruka was better at actually picking well hidden spots, even though he was the youngest, but Nee-san usually won hide-and-seek games anyway because she picked spots no one else dared to go.

Daisuke took a deep breath and eased the door open, peeking around it. "Um."

The man inside looked up, eyes dark and kind of scary.

"Um." Daisuke edged a little further in. "We're playing hide-and-seek."

"I noticed," the study's owner said flatly.

She was here, then. Daisuke nodded and stepped all the way inside, and Mari stood up from behind the desk, looking indignant. "Uncle Xanxus! You gave it away!"

He just looked at her and she sighed and turned to Daisuke. "Did you find Haruka?"

"Yep!" He was pretty proud of that, too, since Haruka had hidden in the bottom of a library bookcase. He and Mari were both already too big to hide there and it was hard to remember to check the spots he couldn't use.

Mari shrugged. "Okay, then. Next round is outside!"

She trotted out the door and, as he turned to follow, Uncle Xanxus called his name. Daisuke paused, looking back. "Yes?" They were all polite, even when Uncle Xanxus was scary, because Father said so. Though Uncle Gokudera didn't seem to mind that very well.

Uncle Xanxus' eyes were still dark, resting on him. "Do you ever wish you'd been born first?"

Daisuke blinked. "No." Nee-san had to study even harder than he and Haruka did, after all.

"Never wanted to be the heir?"

"Oh, that." Daisuke thought, because Uncle Xanxus really did seem curious. "I don't think so. Father says we'll all be doing Vongola stuff together, so no one gets left out. And Mari likes to be bossy, so she'll probably be good at being Boss."

He wasn't sure why that made Uncle Xanxus snort, but it made him look a little less scary. "Go on," he said, and Daisuke did.

Mari always had lots of fun ideas. He'd like helping, he thought.

Between the Lines

Haruka sat curled up in a corner chair of the study, watching his father work, watching him go through stacks of paper, watching Uncle Gokudera come in and mention other Families and talk for a while and go out again. Finally he stirred. "Father?"

His father looked up and smiled; he almost always had time for questions. "Yes?"

"I can understand why not Daisuke; he'd be really bored doing this. But why is Mari heir and not me? Other Families don't have girl heirs."

"The Giglio Nero do," Father pointed out. "And Caterina is the head of the Modigliani."

"Even Donna Caterina has a son coming after her," Haruka objected.

"True enough." Father sat back in his chair with a sigh. "It's been tradition, in the mafia, to choose the eldest boy to be heir, unless there aren't any boys. But I think there are a lot of mafia traditions that should change." He smiled, only it was a very different smile this time, and Haruka didn't think it was a happy one. "It's also a tradition that all the possible heirs of a Family complete to see who survives. I don't like the idea of all of you feeling like you have to fight each other. I'd like you to feel like a real family, like you can help each other, instead."

"Oh." Haruka considered this. "So Vongola is going to be different." That was satisfying.

"I hope so," his father said, quietly.

Haruka nodded. "All right. How am I supposed to help Mari and Daisuke and Mamoru, then?"

"Mari will need people she can trust, that she can talk to. People she knows will listen and tell her honestly what they think." Father's smile was happier again. "I think you'll be good at that."

Haruka thought so too. "And Daisuke? And Mamoru?"

Father laughed. "I think Daisuke just needs to be reminded to slow down sometimes. And Mamoru needs his big brother's protection for now."

"I can do that." Haruka smiled back at Father.

"Yes. I think all of you will do a very fine job."

Haruka tucked those words away to hold on to the next time he had to deal with boys from other Families, and came over to the desk to see what Father was writing.

Tsuna thought that Ryouhei was more bright-eyed about visiting the Etnaland park than any of the kids. Certainly more enthused than his godson.

"That was an extreme waterslide!"

"Sure, Uncle Ryouhei."

"Let's go see the lions!"

"Okay, Uncle Ryouhei."

"Are you hungry? I'm starving. Let's get some food, and then the dinosaur park!"

Haruka rolled his eyes a little but trailed along willingly enough when Ryouhei slung an arm around his shoulder. "Whatever you say, Uncle Ryouhei."

Fortunately, Mari intervened before Ryouhei cajoled Haruka into a sundae. "Oh, hey, look Haruka, they have your favorite soda," she said, sounding perfectly innocent and casual as she leaned on Ryouhei's arm. Their uncle instantly changed the order to include soda instead.

"She's definitely her mother's daughter," he murmured to Kyouko, who was stifling giggles, or possibly horror, in his shoulder. "Let's sit down for a little and let everyone catch up before we go on," he added, louder.

Gokudera herded everyone over to a table and Haruka and Mari settled down to comparing the merits of the water slide versus the crocodile rapids while Ryouhei beamed over them both.

"Onii-san should have children of his own," Kyouko murmured, as they collected their own bottles of water.

"Well, I believe Hana-san thinks a little the way I used to. Perhaps I should talk to her." The approving smile Kyouko gave him still made him want to blush after all this time.

"...and maybe we'll have time for the waterslide again!" Ryouhei was saying to the kids when Chrome and Yamamoto came into view with Mamoru and Shin. Haruka leaned his chin on his hand and grinned with a lot of wry affection, for a ten-year-old.

"Sure, Uncle Ryouhei. That'd be fun."

Tsuna thought Haruka was definitely Kyouko's child, too. At least he couldn't imagine where else the boy had gotten his patience from.

Leavening

You might think, Haru reflected, that Daisuke would be the explorer of Kyouko's children, but somehow it was Mamoru who managed to show up in every nook and corner of the mansion sooner or later. This morning it was her breakfast table, which had meant Hayato's kiss goodbye had been more restrained than usual, but she supposed she couldn't hold that against the boy. He was a very sweet kid.

"Aunt Haru? Why aren't you and Uncle Gokudera married?"

Haru tried not to choke on her coffee. "That's... that's kind of a long story," she managed. Mamoru, she reminded herself, was also very good at asking the hard questions.

Mamoru just nodded and kept looking at her, waiting, clearly quite willing to listen to a long story. Haru looked back, helplessly. "I'm not sure you're old enough to hear it."

Mamoru looked up at her, eyes wide and direct. "I bet I am. If that means it's something we have to not talk about outside the Family, I'm good at that."

Haru had to admit that was true. And besides...

She sighed and set down her cup. "Actually, I'm hoping we can be married sometime kind of soon. We haven't been able to because of my work," she said, carefully, "and I'm hoping I'll be able to hand down that part of my job soon." Possibly to Mari's friend, Fiorela, who seemed to have inherited Dino's charm and Sofia's grace, thank goodness.

Mamoru frowned. "That's awful," he said, firmly. "You must have been really sad." He got up and came around the table to hug her and Haru had to blink away sudden tears. Mamoru really was a sweet kid.

"Nee-san says she won't marry anyone just because of her job, and she gets really upset about it. Kind of the other way around, I guess. But I bet she'll change that, too, so people don't have to get married or not if they don't want to. Or do." He took a moment to double check his own logic and nodded, satisfied, and smiled up at Haru. "We'll change it."

She smiled back and ruffled his hair. "If anyone can, I'd bet on Mari and you guys."

Mamoru peeked into Uncle Hibari's practice room and shook his head. Mari was training again.

Personally, he thought his sister was just a little crazy. Uncle Gokudera said all sisters were crazy, and when Mari was training with Uncle Hibari she looked it. She got all narrow-eyed and super determined, and when she had her Flame burning... well, he wouldn't have wanted to take her on.

He supposed that was a good thing, overall.

"How's she doing?" Father whispered over his shoulder.

Mamoru grinned. "Like Mari."

"So are the two of you going to join us?" Uncle Hibari called without even looking around.

"If you think we should," Father called back easily.

"Mm." Uncle Hibari sounded cool and thoughtful even when he was slamming his students into the walls. "Yes, it's about time she had more practice facing another Sky Flame." He beckoned and Mari hauled herself up again, eyes glinting. "Your cub has teeth, Sawada. I suppose she'll do."

Mamoru stifled a laugh at the way that made Mari light up.

Uncle Hibari strolled over to stand next to Mamoru as Mari and their father squared off. Mamoru eyed his godfather with just a shade of caution. "Did you, um, really want to work out with me?"

Uncle Hibari was silent for a while, but Mamoru was used to that; sometimes you had to wait for Uncle Hibari to decide whether he was using his words today or not.

"There is more than one kind of strength," he said at last, eyes on Mari as her longer knife met Father's glove. "I get more entertainment from hers, but you have teeth of your own."

Something in Mamoru settled a little at that. It was good to know the strongest of Father's Guardians thought he was strong too.

Even if he did sometimes think that Uncle Hibari was kind of strange.

Trip the Light

"Shin! Shin, you little creep, when I find you I'm going to wring your neck!"

Mari stormed on down the hall, and a door creaked slowly open. Two heads peeked out.

"Is the coast clear?" Shin whispered, looking up at his godfather.

"I think so," Uncle Lambo whispered back.

Shin leaned against the wall, wide-eyed. "Wow she's mad!"

Uncle Lambo smiled down at him and ruffled his hair. "Girls are like that sometimes, especially about boys they're dating."

"But she doesn't really want him," Shin said plaintively. "I mean, she always complains about how many boys from the other Families she has to see at parties."

"Mm, well that's kind of another girl thing. Even if she complains about them, she probably wants to decide for herself when they get to know about that."

"Oh. So I guess I shouldn't have told him she thinks he has bad breath, huh?"

Uncle Lambo grinned. "Probably not."

"Dating seems really complicated," Shin complained. "I don't know if I want to do it."

"You have plenty of time to make up your mind." Uncle Lambo held out a hand. "For now how about we go into town and visit the docks until Mari calms down?"

Shin perked up. "Sure!"

He liked having the youngest godfather.

Haruka was the one who saw it first, the strangers' hands reaching for guns, and shouted. Their bodyguards turned to tackle the kids down, but Daisuke got to Mari first, pushing her back into the cafe. That was good. It meant Shin had a clear path to the men who were interrupting their family lunch.

Who were threatening his family.

In the tangled whirl of rushing toward them he could feel the air on his bared teeth. He didn't reach for his box. The weapons he needed were in the hands of the three men facing them and he aimed for the one in front, hand striking aside the muzzle and holding, knee coming up to crack a wrist across it, foot slamming into the softness of a stomach. He turned the gun and pressed it under the man's chin.

And then it was over.

"Shin," Uncle Yamamoto called, gently, from where he stood over the other two. "It's okay. You can let go now, the men have them covered."

Shin's eyes narrowed and his hands didn't move. "He tried to shoot my sister." The man under him tried and failed to swallow against the pressure of the gun.

And then slim, strong hands settled on his shoulders. "I'm all right, Shin," Mari said, cool and sure. "And we need to know who sent them. Let the men take them."

Shin sighed, but Mari was probably already pissed off that she hadn't gotten to fight, and she didn't like backtalk even when she was in a good mood. "All right, then." Pinned under both their glares, the man didn't even twitch when Shin stepped back and their bodyguards moved in. Shin didn't look away until both the survivors had been hustled off, though.

"Hate it when people do that," he grumbled.

Mari wrapped an arm around his shoulders, hugging him for a breath. "I know you do." She smiled at him sidelong. "Don't worry. People will always try to mess with Vongola, but they'll always fail."

Because of us was the unspoken trailer and Shin grinned back at her and relaxed under Daisuke's cheerful clap on his shoulder. "Yeah."

The Queen's Bishop

"...and I hate scrambled eggs!" Mari stomped away from the table in a teary huff, followed by their mother, and all the boys stopped trying to hide in their chairs. Kazuya reminded himself to mark the calendar; forewarning next time would be good.

"Girl stuff," Daisuke declared, shaking his head.

"You know, I've been meaning to ask about that," Haruka put in, thoughtfully, looking over at Kazuya.

Kazuya raised both brows. "...why ask me?"

"Well, you've got Aunt Chrome," Mamoru pointed out. "Has she mentioned anything?"

"Once or twice." Kazuya ate another bite of toast. "She'd tell you too, if you asked."

Mamoru turned red. "Um. Well."

"Stop being annoying because you can," Haruka told Kazuya, though the corner of his mouth twitched. "Did Aunt Chrome say anything about what helps?"

"Chocolate, apparently." Kazuya nibbled his fork, thinking. "And she said it isn't just temper. She said sometimes it hurts. It sounded kind of like having a sprain for a week, only in your stomach."

Eyes widened all around the table.

"Chocolate," Daisuke said, firmly.

"Ice pack?" Haruka hazarded.

Kazuya shook his head "Hot water bottle," he corrected. "I asked. And someone to be nice to her."

The two oldest looked at Mamoru and Shin. Mamoru sighed. "Yeah, yeah, okay."

Kazuya decided not to add that Uncle Mukuro had said it happened because the girl's body was pissed off that it hadn't gotten a baby that month. For one thing he was almost positive Daisuke or Shin would say just the wrong thing at the wrong time, trying to be helpful, if they heard that. For another, Uncle Mukuro had kind of flickered, right after he said it, so he thought maybe Aunt Chrome disagreed, and she was the woman after all.

Kazuya believed in paying attention to your experts.

It was a game, that's the way Kazuya looked at it. Mari punched him in the shoulder when he said that, and insisted she wasn't anyone's game piece, not even his, but that wasn't it at all. He watched for the spaces, when people moved, so that he could stand in them. That way he could get all the way across the board before anyone even realized he was moving. It was exactly the way his sister talked about her hand-to-hand training with Uncle Hibari, after all, he'd have thought she'd understand better.

His godfather understood perfectly well, but maybe that was why Uncle Mukuro seemed to make a lot of people nervous.

"Ah, and here's the youngest, eh?" A heavy hand fell on his shoulder, as he leaned against the buffet table and he looked up to see the head of the Orsini Family giving him a rather hungry smile. "All alone? Not very nice of your family, to leave you out of things."

Kazuya wondered for a moment whether he'd actually heard correctly, but then he remembered Uncle Mukuro's casual words about looking through another's eyes. He supposed it might look that way from the outside.

The Orsini were not allies.

"It's all right," he said, looking away toward where Daisuke was loading up plates for their mother and Aunt Haru. Mamoru was trying to convince him to pass one over before he dropped both. Haruka and Shin were following their sister as she followed their father through the gathering. "It's all right," he repeated softly. "I'm interested in different things than most of them are."

It was perfectly true, and he smiled just a little as the Orsini's eyes brightened and narrowed, hearing the lie it implied. The smile too would be mistaken.

Standing in the spaces.

It was all a game, and the thing most people didn't understand about games was that, win or lose, they had a price. For the sake of his family, of his brothers, of his sister who would lead their Family, he would pay the price of winning this one.

Next Step

Tsuna leaned back in his lawn chair and watched the brilliant streaks of color as his children played tag over the lawn with their Dying Will Flames. Even Mari had abandoned her fresh adult dignity to shriek with laughter as she dove to evade Kazuya. Sometimes Tsuna wondered just what—or perhaps how—Mukuro had taught his youngest, because despite being only fourteen Kazuya had control as fine as Mari or Haruka.

"Looks like you did it, boss," Gokudera commented, leaning on the back of his chair.

"Did what?"

Gokudera smiled down at him. "None of those six will try to fight each other for your position."

Tsuna chuckled as Shin skidded across the grass, trying to avoid Daisuke, and splashed into the ornamental pond with a squawk. Daisuke paused to laugh and was tagged by Mamoru. "And I'm grateful for it." Quietly he added, "Especially Haruka."

"He matches her strength, yes, but he doesn't have Mari-san's passion, and he knows it," Gokudera answered, just as quiet. "Don't worry, boss."

"Too late," Tsuna murmured, wry. He had to admit, Mari had inherited his own passion, the thing that could drive both of them past their limits over and over. He wasn't sure that was anything he'd have wished on his child, but it was a fact.

"They have each other," Gokudera told him gently. "And she hasn't even chosen her Guardians yet. At this rate, she'll kind of have two sets."

Tsuna's mouth twitched at that. "Mafia beware."

When the children returned to the table, out of breath, they wanted to know what was so funny.

End

Exigencies of Service

Takes place some time early in "The Queen and All Her Men". Tsuna has to be convinced that his children need to learn early how to fight. Fortunately, Kyouko is more pragmatic. Drama, I-3

"Stop acting like an herbivore, Sawada."

Tsuna glared at Hibari across his desk. "One of the reasons I took this job was to change enough of our world that children don't have to fight!"

"Well you aren't there yet," Hibari pointed out brutally, "and if you want your children to live, they need to know how to fight. Now."

Kyouko sighed to herself and crossed her ankles, waiting for them to get it out of their systems. Once they were reduced to glaring at each other silently, she rose and gently pushed Hibari back from the desk and into a chair. "That's enough, both of you." Ignoring Hibari's raised brows, she came around to lay her hands on Tsuna's shoulders. "Tsuna," she said softly, "you mustn't be selfish about this."

"Selfish?" he whispered, eyes wide.

"I know you want to protect us all. To make a place for us to live where we don't have to worry about these things. But you can't do that alone." She smiled sadly. "Keeping the ones you love in ignorance didn't work very well last time, did it?"

He turned red and his eyes slid away from hers.

"I know you want that safe, wonderful place for your family to live and for yourself to come back to and rest," she whispered, and then tightened her hands and shook him once, firmly. "But you can't make that place without us, and if we're to help, we have to know!"

After a long, taut moment, he sighed, tension easing out of his shoulders under her hands. "Almost did it again, didn't I?" He smiled up at her, rueful and sweet. "I'm sorry."

She bent down and kissed his forehead. "Don't worry." Just a bit impishly she pointed out, "I'm here to remind you when you start to do something foolish. It's my job."

Standing he gathered her close and murmured into her hair, "I don't deserve you. Thank you." With a long breath he let her go and looked over at Hibari, who was watching them with a cool look, legs crossed, hands folded on his knee.

"If you're quite done with inappropriate displays?" he asked, dryly. "Living in this country has corrupted you, Sawada."

Tsuna laughed. "This isn't Namimori, and it isn't against school rules."

Hibari sniffed, though his eyes glinted at the banter. "Well?"

"All right." Tsuna held up a hand. "They'll be taught." His mouth quirked wryly. "The ones who don't run screaming will even be taught by you."

"I suppose that will do." Hibari stood, straightening his cuffs fastidiously. On his way out he paused to look back at Kyouko and give her a slow nod.

Kyouko just smiled.

End

Festivity

A person can learn all sorts of useful, interesting things by eavesdropping. Takes place early on in The Queen and All Her Men. Warnings for unabashed adorable fluff involving toddlers, and the general Hibari outlook on life.

Kyouya supposed that it was all well and good that Sawada's cub had survived another year. Given the general atmosphere in which she'd done it, he even supposed that he could understand commemorating the accomplishment. What no one had been able to explain (to his satisfaction, at any rate) was why doing so involved filling the south garden with every squalling mafioso brat from one to ten years old, and why he was required to attend.

"Mari likes her Uncle Hibari," Sawada Kyouko had said, firmly, and there was something in her smile that suggested teeth. "She wants you there. Don't worry, all you actually need to do is be present. We won't force you to have fun, I promise."

Kyouya had found the novelty of seeing Sawada's woman showing her fangs like that amusing. It was his duty, he felt, to reward such efforts, so he had agreed to attend, albeit grudgingly.

Her word had been good, though, and he had been allowed to retain his dignity and sit in the shade beneath the terrace in peace, save for the handful of times Mari had bustled over to him, full of a four-year-old's newfound authority. Once had been to inquire after his comfort, and another had been to bring him a plate of cake, carried carefully in her own pudgy hands. He'd been forced to eat a bite under her command, but after that, she'd let him alone in order to terrorize the rest of her guests.

Kyouya supposed life could have been worse, and closed his eyes—not that he had any intentions of actually sleeping, since it was much too loud for that—to keep anyone else from disturbing him.

He should have known better.

"My goodness, will you look at that?"

The voice—female, older, probably one of the other Families' matrons—sounded like it was right in his ear.

"Isn't that just a sight to warm your heart?" asked a second voice, also older and female.

That meant they weren't discussing him. Kyouya slitted his eyes open and tipped his head further back to look—ah, yes. They were above him, two of them leaning against the terrace railing, looking out at the garden.

"It's a sight to warm something," the first one agreed—she was from the Valetti, he thought.

Her companion giggled, a sound that was distinctly at odds with her stout figure and her grey hair. "Absolutely. That one is positively delicious. I could eat him up with a spoon."

They definitely didn't mean him, then. It seemed entirely likely that they hadn't even noticed him. Kyouya raised an eyebrow, and wondered what the Orsini boss would say about hearing his wife saying such things.

"I certainly wouldn't kick him out of bed," Valetti murmured, fanning herself with a bit of paper.

Kyouya opened his eyes a bit wider, to see who they might be discussing. The only one in easy sight was Yamamoto, who currently had small children dangling from every extremity, and was laughing even harder than they were.

That made sense, he supposed, and closed his eyes again, the better to listen.

"Is he attached?" Orsini asked, slow and thoughtful.

"That one is... hm, the Vongola's Rain, so no, he's not, as far as I know." Valetti's voice turned sly. "Why, were you considering him?"

"And if I was?" Orsini asked, arch. "There's no harm in a bit of fun. And don't you think he'd be... fun?"

"Oh, undoubtedly," Valetti agreed, practically purring the words. "Younger lovers always are." Then her tone turned practical. "But it's not sensible to get mixed up in another Family's Guardians."

Kyouya muffled a snort.

"Pity," Orsini said, regretfully. "Actually, I was thinking of something else. HÃ©lÃ¨ne is about the right age to catch a boy's eye, you know. If that one's not attached yet..."

"Mmm," Valetti said, the sound a thoughtful one. "Mmm, yes, I see what you mean. It would be a good in, no less."

"Exactly. And he seems like a good enough man. He might even make a decent father, if his showing here is any indication. And surely he must be looking for a wife by now."

Valetti hummed. "Mm, you would think. Well. It certainly wouldn't hurt to look into. Makes me rather wish I had a spare niece at the moment. Pity."

"Indeed," Orsini said, sounding altogether too smug about it. "I think I—my goodness, what do you suppose he's coming this way for?"

Valetti giggled. "Maybe he knows we're talking about him?"

Kyouya snorted and opened his eyes to see Yamamoto ambling over as the women on the terrace fluttered. He tilted his head back again so that he could watch them, and waited until Yamamoto had hailed him to smile, so that when the two women finally looked down, he was showing all his teeth.

They disappeared in a flurry of red faces and squeaking, which was as satisfying as scattering herd animals ever was, and left him in peace as Yamamoto dropped himself onto the grass next to Kyouya's chair with a gusty sigh. "You know, I'm glad we're Tsuna's Guardians," he announced. "Mari's a holy terror, and I don't even wanna think about what she's going to be like when she gets older."

Kyouya just snorted at him, letting him know that he wasn't fooling anyone.

"No, I'm serious." Yamamoto grinned up at him. "Can you imagine how she's going to boss her boyfriends around?"

That was a topic too close to what the idiot women had just been prattling about, so Kyouya grunted at him, noncommittal.

Yamamoto peered up at him. "What's wrong?"

"Watch out for the Orsini," Kyouya said, short and precise. "They have a niece they'd like to see you married to."

"What, again?" Yamamoto groaned. "Damn it."

Kyouya looked down at him, curiosity piqued. "Is it that regular an occurrence?"

"Yeah, sometimes." Yamamoto's smile was wry. "Most of 'em seem to think they'll get closer to Tsuna that way." His eyes went darker. "I would have thought they'd learned better by now."

"Mm. You should pick one, then. From inside the Family."

Yamamoto blinked up at him, slow and herbivorous. "Why would I want to do that?"

Kyouya's chair was comfortable enough that he settled for simply kicking Yamamoto rather than interrupting Mari's party with a fight. "To keep the other Families from siccing their daughters and nieces on you. And so you can have your own brats to play with."

"But I don't want that," Yamamoto said, with a faint smile. "Would've done it a few years ago, if I had."

Kyouya snorted, but he supposed that was true enough—they'd all had plenty of chances to join the headlong rush into marriage and domesticity. "You like the brats," he pointed out.

Yamamoto's shrug was probably grinding grass stains into the back of his shirt, but he didn't seem to care. "The kids are fun," he said, admitting it easily enough. "But this way I can give 'em back at the end of the day." His eyes went darker again. "And they probably wouldn't mind it as much if Uncle Yamamoto doesn't make it home, one of these days. It'd be different for Yamamoto-tousan."

"Sheep," Kyouya told him. "Don't be stupid." He aimed another kick at Yamamoto's ribs.

Yamamoto caught his foot before it could connect, hand curling around his ankle and holding it, grip solid. "Baa," he drawled, with a grin and sharp eyes. "I've already got just about everything I want," he added, looking up at Kyouya, a considering sort of look on his face. "Not everything, though."

Then his fingers slid up the inside of Kyouya's slacks.

Kyouya blinked as Yamamoto's thumb stroked over the bare skin just above his sock. "You can't be serious."

"Can't I?" Yamamoto asked, voice pitched low, just for him, thumb still moving slowly, dragging something hot down Kyouya's spine to curl in the pit of his stomach.

Kyouya thought it over. "Make sure you are," he said, and watched Yamamoto's smile stretch wider at the note in his voice.

"Oh, I'm serious," Yamamoto said, fingers creeping higher. "Plenty serious. I play for keeps."

Kyouya regarded him, and then nodded, short and sharp. "All right, then," he said, and then kicked free of Yamamoto's hand. "Mari's looking for you," he announced, at the surprise in Yamamoto's eyes. "We'll finish this later."

Yamamoto grinned up at him. "Sounds good to me," he said, and rolled to his feet.

Kyouya watched him divert Mari's determined march in their direction by swinging her up onto his shoulders as she shrieked joyfully, considering, and then nodded to himself, stretching out in his chair again and leaning back.

He caught just a glimpse of Sawada Kyouko's satisfied smile above the terrace railing before it vanished in a swirl of bright hair.

Kyouya growled, but had to admit, on second thought, that it was better her than the Orsini harridan. Still. If Yamamoto had known she was there, Kyouya was going to do more than just kick him.

That promise made to himself, Kyouya settled back in his chair and watched the rough-and-tumble happening among the brats, contemplating the possibilities before him.

It was turning out to be a satisfactory sort of day after all, he decided, all things considered. And the evening promised to be even better.

- end -

Relative Values

Takes place somewhere towards the middle of The Queen and All Her Men. Tsuna and Kyouko have a favor to ask. Fluff, general audiences

Rokudou Mukuro came and went as freely as a Cloud—rather more freely than perhaps anyone other than Tsuna and Kyouko was really comfortable with, all things considered. The word of the Vongola was unbreakable, though, and Tsuna had given it to the Vendicare to secure Mukuro's parole, so Mukuro came and went as he pleased, save for the occasions when Tsuna's business required his presence.

Such as this one.

It was always interesting to watch Mukuro and Chrome when they were together in the same space, Kyouko mused. They gravitated towards each other, and shared a handful of mannerisms—the tilt of the head, a trick of posture, the way a gesture followed a thought—that gave them an uncanny resemblance to each other. One had to wonder how much of that was deliberate, and how much of it was unconscious, and who was the original and who was the copy.

After all, she'd seen too much to assume that the influence only ran in one direction, where the two of them were concerned.

"Well, what is it?" Mukuro asked, when Tsuna had joined them and Kyouko had distributed coffee to the three of them, and taken up her own cup of tea. He glanced at Kyouko before asking, as if her presence was some kind of cue, and then added, "I assume this isn't about Spain."

"No," Tsuna said, with a faint smile. "Should it be about Spain?" That was where they'd called Mukuro home from, where he'd been pursuing some end of his own.

Tsuna held Mukuro's eyes, and Mukuro was the one who shrugged. "It has nothing to do with the Vongola," he said, and selected one of the flaky little tarts that Kyouko had noticed he liked.

"Then no, it isn't about Spain," Tsuna said, and took a sip of his coffee.

Despite the fact that Tsuna was as much responsible for this as she was, he had insisted that it was her news to share, so Kyouko cleared her throat. "I'm expecting," she said, which garnered a murmured, "Congratulations," from Chrome, and a, "What, again?" from Mukuro.

"Mukuro-sama," Chrome said, gently reproving. "That wasn't very polite." She did not, Kyouko noted, make the mistake of confusing 'polite' with 'nice'.

"I suppose it's not. Congratulations to both of you," Mukuro said, eyes dark. "And may you not live to see the whole lot of them fighting each other to be your heir."

From Mukuro, that was practically a blessing. "Thank you," Kyouko said, smiling. He just snorted.

Chrome was still watching them, waiting—probably with a good idea of what was to come. Mukuro surely had the same idea, but he rarely showed what he was thinking, while Chrome sometimes did.

"We'd like you to stand as godparents to the child," Tsuna said, and that completed the circle that they'd begun with Gokudera and Mari.

The two of them had to have seen it coming; the pattern hadn't exactly been subtle. All of Tsuna's other Guardians had taken on this duty in addition to their other responsibilities, from Gokudera down to Lambo. Chrome reacted as Tsuna and Kyouko had agreed that she probably would, by tipping her head and murmuring, "I would be honored."

Mukuro just looked at them both and said, flatly, "Have you lost your minds?"

"No, of course not," Tsuna said, smiling. "Are you willing to do it?"

Kyouko raised her tea to her lips, to conceal the fact that she was holding her breath.

"Have you forgotten who I am?" Mukuro demanded, and Kyouko sighed into her cup. He wasn't unwilling, then—just suffering an attack of his peculiar brand of scruples.

"Of course I haven't," Tsuna told him, still with his smile, but there was a touch of his Will in his eyes. "You're my Mist."

"And our Family," Kyouko murmured, in case Mukuro had forgotten that she was party to the decision, too. "Really, I can't think of any better way to mark the fact than to have you as a godparent." She set her tea down, and added, "Of course, if you say no, I suppose we can ask Xanxus instead."

Even Tsuna choked on that one.

"Use your head, Sawada," Mukuro said, after a moment. "Think of how this will look."

"It will look as though I am gathering one of my people to me and keeping him there," Tsuna said, firmly. "If you do not wish to do this, then all you have to do is say so. But if your only reasons for saying no are what you fear the other Families will think, that's not your problem. It's mine, and I don't care about them." His Will echoed in his voice and his eyes, low and sure and smooth.

Mukuro was no more immune to that than any of Tsuna's other Guardians, though Kyouko was sure that he'd be loath to admit it. He stared at Tsuna until, finally, he inclined his head, and said, sour, "It's your neck."

"Yes, it is," Kyouko said, smiling. "More coffee?"

He grunted at her, but held out his cup after a moment, and that was that. Kyouko refilled it, smiling, and wondered what this new duty was likely to make of him.

- end -

The Overarching Sky

Mari chooses her Guardians, which runs into occasional trouble with both family and Family foibles. Drama, I-3

"You wanted to see me, Father?" Mari closed the door of the study behind her, noted her father's expression, both affectionate and harried, and looked around for a baby in a suit. Sure enough, Reborn was in one of the armchairs with a tiny cup of coffee. "Reborn, welcome back."

"Mari, you're twenty-six already. It's about time you were officially confirmed as the Vongola heir," he answered with typical briskness. "It's time you started choosing your Guardians."

Mari put her hands on her hips, brows raised. "What do you mean, started?"

Her father chuckled. "I thought you might have a few ideas already."

"You can't choose your brothers for all of them," Reborn cautioned.

"Of course not. Haruka and Shin both have the Sky attribute, same as me. No, we've already discussed this. Well, mostly." She hurried along. "Daisuke and Kazuya, and Rei, from the family."

Father tipped his head to the side and asked, softly, "Not Mamoru?"

Mari nibbled her lip. "Well. That's the mostly part."

"Finish that, then," Reborn told her. "And we can talk about the rest."

"I already know the rest," Mari muttered. "Mostly." Before they could ask about that part, too, though, she slipped out and took a good breath and headed for her brother's room.

"Mamoru?" Mari stood in the doorway, looking more hesitant than his big sister usually did, and Mamoru waved her in.

"What's up, Mari?"

"Well. It's, um. See, Reborn just got back and he and Father think it's time to make things official, and they want me to name my Guardians, and..."

Mamoru smiled and held up a hand, cutting off the single-breath explanation.

"Don't tell me, let me guess. You want to choose Mario instead of me."

"Mm." Mari nibbled on her lip and he got up to go and hug her.

"Nee-san, stop being silly," he said into her hair. "Mario will be a good Lightning Guardian for you, and it's not like it makes me any less your brother, does it?"

"Of course not! I just..."

"You just want to make everyone happy. Kind of like Father."

She looked up with a smile, if still a small one. "I am his heir, after all."

"I will be happy supporting you the same way Haruka and Shin do," he said, firmly.

"I know you will," she admitted. "I just don't want you to be hurt by what other people say about this. I mean, with Daisuke as my Sun Guardian and Kazuya as my Mist. Haruka and Shin, well, people will understand that. But here you are, the odd man out."

Mamoru shrugged. "So maybe that will be useful some time." He grinned. "I bet Kazuya can tell us if it is."

She finally laughed. "I wonder sometimes if it was really a good idea, making Uncle Mukuro his godfather."

"At least he's as well trained as it's possible to be," Mamoru said, practically. He tucked a strand of his sister's bright hair back. "Now stop worrying. Mario couldn't be more loyal to you, and you and I know I'm always here when you need me. That's all we need."

"My extra good sense, yes." She hugged him. "Thanks, Mamoru."

"Not as though you don't have plenty of family among your Guardians, what with two brothers and a cousin." And they'd all known, since the day Rei had coolly broken the arm of one of Mari's suitors who got a little too pressing, who Mari's Rain Guardian would be. The incident itself hadn't ruffled Rei in the least, but the weeks of Uncle Ryouhei's loud pride in his daughter had almost embarrassed her to death before Mari had spoken to Aunt Hana, who made him stop. The girls had made a mutual protection pact in the best mafia tradition.

"I don't need one of the Vongola rings to take care of my sister," Mamoru finished, firmly.

Mari hugged him again, squeezing him nearly breathless this time, and grinned up at him. "Thanks, little brother."

He laughed at the family joke; he'd grown taller than her four years ago. "Go on, then. Ask Mario. Oh, wait! Let me get my camera first."

When Mari knocked on Mario's door, she was hoping to get her friend in person, but luck didn't seem to be with her that much today. It was his father who answered, and she'd always had the feeling that Fedele was conflicted over both her and her father. And that was before Uncle Gokudera had told her enough Vongola history for her to figure out why, before she'd known there had ever been a different heir to become the Vongola Tenth or that he'd been killed while the man who would have been his right hand had lived. The man whose son she had come to call on to serve a new heir.

Well, no one had ever said her job would be easy.

"Fedele," she said, courteous and firm. "I'd like to speak with Mario."

His eyes flicked between her and Mamoru and his mouth tightened for a moment. "Come in."

They waited in the sitting room, Mari in one of the armchairs and Mamoru standing at her shoulder. Her mouth quirked at his silent insistence that she was the Eleventh and would be respected as such. Mario saw it, too, when he came clattering down the stairs, but, being Mario, misread it a bit.

"Mari, hey, what's..." he trailed off, "up?" His eyes were shadowed for just a moment, resting on Mamoru, but he pulled himself together and straightened. "Was there something you needed to tell me?"

Mari shook her head at him. "Of course there is, you idiot, but not that." She couldn't help smiling a little at the confusion that relaxed his spine. "You always jump to conclusions. So?" She stood and held out a hand, grinning. "You with me or what?"

The caution in his face thawed into the Mario she knew, and he grinned back at her, brilliant, catching her hand. "About damn time!"

They both jumped at the click and flash of Mamoru's camera, and Mario growled at him. Mamoru just laughed. "Oh, come on. That was adorable."

"I am not adorable," Mario declared, firmly. "I'm way too old to be adorable."

Mari elbowed Mamoru before he could tease Mario any more, and Mario drew himself up, reminded that this was, theoretically, a formal occasion. "I will be honored to serve the Eleventh."

Mari squeezed his hand, sealing the deal. "I'll be pleased to have you as my Lightning Guardian."

Mamoru, tucking the camera away, clapped a hand on Mario's shoulder. "Take good care of my sister."

"Well, hey." Mario ran a self-conscious hand through his hair. "That'll take both of us, won't it?"

"Probably," Mamoru agreed, trenchantly, and caught a slightly more serious elbow for that one.

They might have stood there grinning at each other like idiots for a lot longer if Fedele hadn't spoken from the stairs where he'd been watching. "The confirmation is coming up, then?"

Mari turned to him. She always gave Fedele her full attention, feeling like she was waiting for something—for some kind of sign from him. "Father and Reborn both feel that would be wise."

He looked at his son for a long moment, eyes dark. "Don't fail her," he finally said, quietly, and turned to go back up the stairs. The stifled pain in every line of his body pulled Mari forward a step; screw waiting, she couldn't just leave it at that.

"Fedele!" When he paused at the sharpness of her voice, Mari crossed the room to him and looked up into his eyes. Fierce and soft she told him, "It wasn't your fault."

"It was my responsibility." His usually stern expression was even remoter than usual.

"I don't deny that," Mari said quietly, and his eyes flickered, maybe startled. "But it wasn't your fault. You were overwhelmed. You weren't strong enough to protect him all by yourself. None of us can do that! That's why we have each other." Her hand cut across at her brother, at her new Guardian, Fedele's son. She looked around at the dim room, the small room, of a small house, far from the Vongola mansion and knowledge came together in her heart. "And I don't care what other people might have said. I know you didn't betray your boss." When he started to look away, face twisting, she stepped closer, not letting him. "You did not betray him. I know." Softly she added, "And he knew, too."

He blinked at her, shadows broken by startlement, and finally smiled just a little. "Blood of Vongola." He took a breath and let it out. "The Vongola will pass into good hands."

She supposed that was a start and when he turned away again she didn't try to call him back. Though she did make a definite mental note to speak to Father about this, because they couldn't just leave one of their people in such a state.

Mario was staring, when she turned around. "Mari."

She blushed just a little. "Um. Yeah?"

He crossed the room and knelt down for a breath, pressing his forehead to the back of her hand. When he looked up, he was smiling. "He's right."

She tugged him up, blushing. "Well. Glad you think so, considering."

Rei was a lot easier.
Mari strolled with her young cousin to the other end of the terrace where their mothers were having tea. "Have you heard?" she asked.

"That you're choosing?" Rei glanced at Mari under her lashes. "Yes."

Mari smiled. "Will you be my Rain Guardian?"

Receiving all of Rei's focused attention was a little like being hit by a bus and Mari was glad she'd had years to get used to it. "Of course I will, Mari-san."

Mari touched Rei's hand. "Thank you." She didn't even think of chuckling at the faint color that crossed Rei's cheeks.

She started to ask the rest of it and paused. Of all her Guardians-to-be, Rei—dedicated, serious, responsible Rei—would surely be the best suited to be her right hand, when she took the Family. But something held her back; it just didn't feel quite right.

Well, it wasn't like she didn't have plenty of time to work out that choice. She'd mentioned it in passing to Reborn and gotten an inscrutable baby-smirk in answer that made her roll her eyes. At least he wasn't pressing her to choose right away, though.

"So, how's Uncle Ryouhei doing?" she asked instead. "He's been away for months."

"Loudly," Rei said dourly. "Like he's always doing. He called Mother last night and I could hear him in the next room."

This time, Mari laughed.

"Mari, Kazuya! To what do we owe the pleasure?" Uncle Dino paused on his way through the halls to ruffle her hair and smile at Kazuya.

"Hey, Uncle Dino. I just stopped by to talk to Fiorela."

His eyes sharpened and moved from her to Kazuya. "I see. I wondered if that would be coming soon. Well, Fiorela is up in her room. I'm sure she'll be pleased to see you."

"We've only been friends since we were three years old, I should hope so!" Mari laughed, wondering whether all the parents had Guardian Radar this week.

"Well, why else would I be with you, to visit her?" Kazuya murmured as they continued up the stairs. "Uncle Dino hasn't been the Cavallone boss this long without learning politics."

"I suppose it would be unreasonable if I said I don't want my friends to be politics," Mari sighed.

"Not unreasonable." Kazuya bumped her shoulder sympathetically. "Just not very likely."

Mari snorted a little. "Yeah, that. Hey, Fiorela!" she added, throwing open her friend's door.

"Mari, perfect timing! Which of these looks more demure?" Fiorela spun around, holding two dresses up. Mari eyed the hem of one and neckline of the other.

"Neither, really." She leaned a hip on the dresser. "Who are you after?"

Fiorela's eyes gleamed. "The Rosetti. Geno, the second son."

Mari grinned. It was always nice to see someone enjoying her work. "Getting the inside scoop before negotiations next week, huh? Hmmmm." She examined the dresses again. "You're right, you probably need a bigger hammer to get through to him. Maybe the green? The frilly sleeves should look all girlish."

"I think you're right." Fiorela shrugged off her dressing gown and started wriggling into the clinging, green dress. "So, you here for business? Or is Kazuya just your bodyguard of the day?"

Kazuya, who was looking out the window, mouth quirked as he ignored Fiorela's half-naked squirming, said, "A little of both."

Mari spared a moment to be thankful they both found needling each other amusing. Having her Storm and her Mist constantly fighting for real wouldn't have been fun.

Though she'd heard some stories about Uncle Gokudera and Uncle Yamamoto, from the early days.

"They want to confirm me as the Eleventh," she told Fiorela, quietly.

Her friend paused in the middle of running fingers through the dark, curly hair she'd gotten from her mother, and met Mari's eyes in the mirror. "So it's time to make it official, hm?" She turned to face Mari, straight and proud, games set aside.

"Will you be the next Vongola Storm Guardian?" Mari asked, simply.

"I will."

Their eyes held for a moment and Mari found the absolute dedication in Fiorela's comforting. "Thank you," she said, softly.

And then the moment was past and she grinned and waved at Kazuya. "In that case, meet your new consultant."

Fiorela curled her lip. "Oh, please."

"You need to work with someone who spends more time considering things," Kazuya said firmly. "You're very good, but sometimes you get carried away."

"I'm supposed to!" Fiorela protested.

"The Storm is supposed to be your strength, not your excuse," Kazuya told her dryly.

Fiorela glared at him for a breath before looking at Mari. "Are you sure he's really only eighteen and didn't get switched out for a forty year old at birth?"

"Afraid so." Mari grinned, wryly.

Fiorela heaved a sigh. "Okay, fine. So what does my consultant have to say about Geno?"

"That he won't believe in the possibility of an alliance marriage, not with you. String him along with the suggestion that you have your brother's ear, instead, and use the flirting as a simple distraction."

Mari sat back and watched them plotting, and wondered if all her Guardians would be like this, if the fit and connections between them would all snap into place so firmly. It was almost enough to make her believe in the mysticism surrounding the Rings.

"So it's the Cloud she's unsure of?" Reborn asked, ankles crossed on the chair seat in front of him.

"It isn't too surprising, is it?" Tsuna smiled. "I think the relationship between a boss and the Cloud Guardian is probably the hardest to even describe. At least she's recognized who she wants."

"So? Is Lucia willing or not?"

Tsuna leaned back, looking out the window thoughtfully. "I think she is. I even think she'll be a very good Cloud. But exactly because of that, her loyalty to Mari won't be quite like what Mari sees from the others. I think she's having a hard time recognizing it."

Reborn sniffed. "Her intuition should tell her, by now."

"Hm." Tsuna knew his daughter hadn't exactly had an easy childhood, but she also hadn't been forced to grow with quite such drastic speed as he had. Her gifts weren't always consistent yet. "Maybe I'll write Chrome and invite her to bring Lucia to visit," he murmured. "By now both of the girls are probably thinking about this. Maybe Mari's intuition just needs an opportunity."

The corners of Reborn's mouth curled up. "Maybe I'll stay and see, then."

Kazuya looked up from his quiet conversation with Aunt Chrome as Mari and Lucia swept into the room, both shower-damp and stumbling a little but looking extremely pleased with themselves.

"That was fun," Mari declared, easing down into a chair.

"Not bad at all," Lucia agreed, showing her teeth as she folded up cross-legged by the low table. She stretched her arms over her head, eyes glinting.

Lucia was the only person besides Mari herself and Uncle Yamamoto who actually enjoyed training with Uncle Hibari. Kazuya figured she must have gotten the taste for fighting from her father, since Aunt Chrome seemed like a regular, sensible person that way. Fortunately, Lucia didn't have her father's loud brashness, even once she relaxed enough around someone to drop the most reserved of her manners.

Or maybe that should be 'unfortunately' since then, at least, Mari would have been sure of Lucia by now.

Mari glanced around. "Is Father still busy with the Pozzo Nero thing?"

"Mm," Haruka agreed, looking up from his book. "I'm afraid so. You'd think they'd just give up already, but no. It's the Orsini they're trying to ally with this time."

"You should take care of them for good," Lucia stated. Not really an unexpected sentiment, given her family, Kazuya reflected; Uncle Mukuro could be extremely direct, in some ways, and all his people picked it up.

Mari shook her head. "That would only set the other Families off worse, given they haven't attacked us directly."

"They have attacked directly, just not with guns." Lucia gave Mari a challenging look that Mari returned with a cheerful smile.

"A good point, I suppose." Kazuya watched Mari veer off from the argument and sighed. Sometimes he really thought what these two needed was to have a good fight.

Sure enough, Lucia stiffened just a little. "You know I hate it when you do that," she muttered.

Kazuya was just getting ready to say something, to distract them, when Mari paused and looked at Lucia, eyes suddenly direct and piercing. "It doesn't mean that I don't trust you," she said, abruptly.

Lucia lifted her head and stared at Mari.

"That's what you thought, isn't it?" Mari asked, softly. "Because you're only really polite with people until you trust them."

"Well, that's the way you smile at people you're fooling, isn't it?" Lucia asked, a little harsh. "You think I don't recognize it?"

"I..." Mari hesitated. "I didn't want to fight with you."

Lucia stared at her blankly. "Why not?"

Mari's mouth twitched at that, and she finally broke down laughing. "I'm sorry," she managed, waving a hand. "You're right."

Lucia looked satisfied for a moment and then frowned and poked Mari with her toe. "Why didn't you want to fight?"

Mari took a deep breath and wiped her eyes. "Ah. Well." She looked down at her hands, clasping them tightly for a moment, and finally said, low, "Because I'm hoping you'll agree to be my Cloud Guardian."

Lucia was silent for a moment. Finally she snorted. "And you thought not fighting with me was the way to get me to say yes?"

"All right, I admit it, I wasn't thinking!"

"You know," Haruka drawled, "I'm glad it's you who has to deal with this, Mari. I don't think I'd like having to juggle all the Guardians and their," he paused as Lucia caught his eye, brows raised, and finished, "quirks."

Lucia snorted softly. "Well." She eyed Mari. "You could certainly use someone to keep you from getting too fluffy."

"Fluffy?" Mari asked, eyes glinting.

"Soft, even," Lucia added, with a provoking smile.

"There is nothing soft about taking the time to do things right, to make changes that will stick instead of just flailing around with brute force." Mari's voice was intense.

"There's no point in being afraid to use the force you have," Lucia shot back. "Especially if it's the right tool for the job."

Mari leaned forward. "Some jobs. Not all. We have to judge when it's really the best option and not just the easiest."

Lucia matched her stare for stare. "But if it is the best option, then we have to use it."

"Done."

They held each other's eyes locked for another long moment and finally Lucia leaned back and gave Mari a judicious look. "All right. That was more like it." Her sharp grin flashed. "I'll do it."

Mari lit up and Kazuya couldn't help a laugh. He'd been right; they just needed a good fight. Considering Uncle Hibari, he couldn't be surprised.

There wasn't any particular ceremony, and Mari was grateful for that. She was nervous enough already, just knowing that all of the top members of the Family were here as witnesses. If all went well, she would be presented again to their allies, but by then she'd at least know for sure that everything was all right.

She could feel Uncle Xanxus' eyes on her back.

"In years past, these rings were kept hidden most of the time," her father said, laying his hands on the two boxes on the table in front of him. "Now they are the first and final defense of our Family. The seven of you will not hold them constantly until I retire. But today your right to them will be confirmed."

Mari appreciated his trust in them, in her, but she knew that this could also be the day her right to the Sky Ring was proven false.

Father opened the boxes and drew out two ring-halves, fitting them together. Mari's nerves fought with her sense of the absurd, that the rings had been broken apart this morning, only to be fitted together again as a gesture.

Well, not exactly a gesture, she had to admit, eyes flicking to Irie. It was also proof that both the Boss and the outside advisor agreed where to bestow them.

"Sasagawa Rei," he said quietly, and held out the Rain ring. Rei stepped forward to take it and only the Guardians, old generation and new, were close enough to see her fingers shaking just a little. Uncle Ryouhei shifted on his feet and Uncle Yamamoto elbowed him and winked at Rei. Her back straightened, eyes narrowing with disapproval of the byplay on a solemn occasion and she slid the ring onto her finger with steady hands.

"Fiorela Cavallone," Father called next, face straight but eyes twinkling.

Mari held on to that, reminding herself to breathe nice and slow, as the Guardians she had chosen, who had chosen her, came one after another to take the rings.

"Sawada Mari."

She took one last breath and walked forward to take the ring from her father's hand. Their eyes met and he nodded just a little, confident and encouraging. She nodded back and slid the ring onto her hand.

Heavenly lighting failed to instantly strike her, which seemed like a good sign.

She turned to her Guardians and held out her hand. They closed around her, reaching out, and her eyes widened as the rings lit with a rainbow of Flame. She hadn't channeled her Will into her own and, from the startled eyes looking back at her, she didn't think anyone else had, either. But the rings burned on their hands, bright and wild.

"The Vongola Rings accept Sawada Mari as the eleventh boss of Vongola," her father declared behind her, and a murmur of approval ran through the room. She barely noticed it, though, as she looked at the faces around her, their unwavering focus on her, and felt understanding singing through her. This, right now, these people were her Family. She would fight to protect them with everything in her and they would always be beside her.

Beside her...

It really was almost a flash of light, the sudden rightness of the thought that came to her. She turned to look at her three brothers, standing to the side with Mother. Haruka looked satisfied and Shin was nearly laughing. Mamoru just watched her, eyes steady.

"Mamoru." She held out her hand to him. "Stand beside me."

He met her gaze and stepped away from the others, coming slowly to her side. He looked around at her Guardians, head cocked. Mario looked enlightened and Fiorela was grinning. Daisuke nodded, pleased, and Kazuya followed after a considering moment. Rei looked back and forth between Mari and Mamoru a few times and added her own firm nod, and Lucia's mouth was curled in a sardonic smile. Mamoru took a slow breath and nodded back to them and slid down to one knee before Mari. His lips touched her ring and he smiled up at her. "Always, boss."

Mari almost shivered, feeling the last thing she'd been missing click into place as her right hand rose to stand at her shoulder. She lifted her head and looked at her father, finally calm and sure in the certainty that this was right.

His gaze was steady. "The rings choose well for the Vongola."

Mari and her people turned together to face the rest of the Family, and Reborn, perched in a windowsill at the back of the room, met her eyes and smiled.

End

Appendix - the Vongola Eleventh Generation

This is an appendix listing things like birth order, Flame alignment and godparents. It contains spoilers for the above stories.

Tsuna and Kyouko's children

Mari: Born when Tsuna and Kyouko are in their mid-twenties. Godparents: Gokudera, Haru, Uni. Alignment: Sky.

Daisuke: Born about a year later. Godparents: Yamamoto, Dino, I-pin. Alignment: Sun.

Haruka: Born about two years later. Godparents: Ryouhei, Basil, Lal. Alignment: Sky.

Mamoru: Born about two years later. Godparents: Hibari, Gamma, Bianchi. Alignment: Lightning.

Shin: Born about a year later. Godparents: Lambo, Fuuta, Hana. Alignment: Sky.

Kazuya: Born about two years later. Godparents: Mukuro, Chrome, Irie. Alignment: Mist.

Author's Note: The godparents are, in some cases, unlikely to actually be much able to function as proper Catholic godparents, but since both Tsuna and Kyouko seem likely to adopt Catholicism for purely business purposes while living in Sicily I have assumed that many of the godparents are chosen to fulfill the more secular function of an older mentor.

Mari's Guardians

Sun: Daisuke.

Mist: Kazuya.

Lightning: Mario, son of Fedele, grandson of Michele, the Ninth's Sun Guardian. Mario is a few years older than Mari.

Rain: Rei, daughter of Ryouhei and Hana. She's about Kazuya's age.

Storm: Fiorela, daughter of Dino and Sofia. She's about the same age as Mari.

Cloud: Lucia, daughter of Chrome and Ken. She's a few years older than Mari.

Over, Under or Around

Mari decides that something has to be done to make Fedele comfortable in the Family again. Drama, I-2

The study was quiet; Mother hadn't come in yet and Mari had sent Mamoru out with Uncle Gokudera to talk to the Cometti. In fact, the study was a little too quiet. Mari dropped the latest report on the Leone and gave up trying to concentrate. "Father, we have to do something about Fedele."

Her father looked up from his chair across the room, smile wry and unsurprised. "For that to work, he has to be willing for something to be done." At Mari's frown he sighed and leaned back. "Do you know how hard it was to get him to accept a place as one of your mother's bodyguards? And nothing I said stopped him from stepping down after—" He broke off, mouth tightening. "Well, there were some... remarks made."

Mari remembered her moment of insight and crossed her arms. "Are there really people in this Family who still think he betrayed Federico?" she asked, low.

"Fedele lived when Federico didn't."

"Because he was left for dead! I've read those reports!" Mari glared. "What, couldn't the people who doubt just ask Uncle Xanxus about it directly? It's not like he wouldn't tell them the truth."

Father burst out laughing, and Mari waited impatiently for him to get a grip again. "Mari," he said, finally, "you have a bit of a unique relationship with Xanxus, you know."

"Yes, I've read those reports, too. I know he used to be kind of crazy. But you managed him just fine, and he's not running around blowing people away at random any more, is he?"

Father sighed. "No, he isn't. But Mari," he met her eyes, suddenly serious, "have you ever thought that might be part of the problem, for Fedele? The man who killed his boss is still a part of this Family."

Mari felt a bit like she'd run into a wall. "Oh." She bit her lip. "And he can't challenge Xanxus, can he? Because you don't want that happening inside the Family." All right, this was a drawback to her father's policy she hadn't foreseen.

"That's why I've tried to let him find his own distance," he admitted.

Mari stared down at her crossed arms, thinking. Fedele was loyal to the Vongola, she had absolutely no doubt of that. But maybe, and this was the new thought, maybe he didn't feel much like the Vongola were loyal back to him. What, short of letting him try to kill Xanxus which could only end badly, would make him feel a proper, valued part of the Family?

What did she do for anyone who was part of her Family?

Finally she looked up. "I think," she said, slowly, "that I want to try something different."

Fedele looked a bit surprised when he answered the door to find Mari standing there. "Mario left earlier; did you miss him?"

"Oh no, he's up at the mansion now." Mari breezed in and made for the kitchen. "No, I wanted to visit you today." She'd been here often enough to know where the cups were and swiftly set out coffee and a tray for the pastries she'd brought along, fruits of a long conference with her mother's pastry chef.

Her mother usually used tea for this purpose, but Mari had grown up with coffee and so had her target, after all.

"You're never up at the mansion, so you miss Lucia's baking," she informed her host and victim, light and social. "Mother's cook Lucia, that is, my Lucia burns water. Mother's Lucia said you might like the ones with honey." She pointed those out helpfully as she set the plate and two cups of coffee on the table and seated herself with a cheerful smile.

Fedele opened his mouth, closed it again, and gave her a long look. "I see." He pulled out the chair across from hers and sat, taking up his cup for a sip. "Sometimes a single person's company only emphasizes solitude," he murmured.

Fedele had been chosen as a prospective boss' right hand, after all, and had well over twice her lifetime's experience to boot, Mari reflected ruefully. He wasn't going to be an easy job. That was all right, though; they could start with small steps, like coffee. "The quality of the company has to be taken into account, doesn't it?" she sallied back. Of all people, Fedele should know that the heir trailed the weight of position and Family wherever she went, alone or not.

"You won't do yourself any favors by this, Mari," he said, almost gently. "Or me, for that matter."

"The idiots who have their heads up their asses will be suspicious of you whether I'm here or not." Mari took a bite of an almond cookie to start the eating off. "And if they prove it in my hearing it's no trouble at all for me to yank their heads out, I assure you."

His mouth twitched at that, and Mari hid a tiny smile in her coffee. Small steps.

"Father is probably a bit hampered by feeling guilty for being the one who bound Xanxus properly into the Family," she pointed out. "But I'm not. And I inherited all of his stubbornness, just ask any of my Uncles and Aunts."

Fedele made a faintly exasperated sound. "I never really doubted that." He absently picked up a pastry.

"Good!" Mari leaned her chin in her hand and smiled brightly. "So, are Tuesdays good for you?"

He paused, perhaps becoming aware of his mouthful of pastry, and eyed her for a long moment. "I suspect," he said, swallowing, "that it won't matter in the end whether it is or not."

"Oh, no," Mari protested. "If another day is better I'm sure I can change my schedule."

"Yes, that's what I meant," he said dryly.

She returned his gaze, letting the brightness slip away for a moment, quiet but immovable. "It isn't right. This is your Family. You have never failed us. If we've failed you, then something must be done."

He twitched back in his chair at that, rueful amusement wiped away to show the shadows plainly again. Mari didn't look aside and at last he bent his head over his cup. "Blood of Vongola," he murmured. "I'd forgotten, a little." He took a slow breath and finally said, "Actually, Tuesdays would be fine."

"Good," Mari said softly.

Step by small step.

End

Two Birds

Mari has to deal with choosing a husband and an outside advisor. The one actually solves the other. Drama with Romance, I-3

Mari shifted her bag of pastries to her other hand and rapped on the door. When Fedele opened it she stomped inside, declaring, "Men!"

"I noticed," he said dryly.

"It's like they think you can have brains or breasts, but not both." Mari made for the kitchen and and rummaged for coffee cups with unnecessary force.

"They're already out."

"Oh." She took a deep breath and let it out. "Right."

Fedele shook his head, looking a little amused, and pulled out a chair for her. "Sit down and I'll get things."

Mari sat and glowered broodingly at her coffee while he laid the pastries out and brought them to the table.

"I can't imagine your own people are being that foolish, so I take it one of the other Families has annoyed you?" he asked, sitting down.

"Not just one! All of them!"

"Even the Cavallone? And the Giglio Nero?" Fedele raised his brows over his cup.

"All right, not Uni, but Uncle Dino is in on it too, this time," Mari growled. "They all want me to get married. Uncle Dino actually told me I should think about it!" Which had felt all the more like a betrayal because Uncle Dino was the one boss who hadn't been throwing his sons at her head all her life. She'd thought he had better sense. If Stefano hasn't distracted his father from the discussion, Mari might have done something drastic.

"Can you really blame them? The Tenth has made no secret that he wants to retire soon, and there's no one to come after you."

"Daisuke has a kid already, and Shin probably will too, any day now." Mari bit into a cookie as though she could bite off all the arguments the same way. "There's plenty of Vongola blood to go around."

"And you know as well as I do that the Vongola prefer to keep the Boss' descent direct, to preserve the strongest Flame if nothing else." Fedele set his cup down and looked at her steadily. "What's the real problem, Mari?"

Mari leaned her chin in her hand and smiled at him wryly. "It's too bad you aren't about thirty years younger, you know." She grinned at the expression on his face and took a more delicate bite of cookie. "I don't suppose I really have any objection to marrying. Mother and Father certainly make it look nice. The problem is that all my prospects are from other mafia Families, and I swear every one of them has been raised to believe that he can take over the Vongola by marrying me."

"Ah." Fedele poured a little more coffee for both of them. "And the allied Families? There are no possibilities among them?"

Mari traced a finger over the smooth wood of the table. "This is probably going to sound petulant." She smiled wryly and his elaborately unsurprised expression. "I've dated most of them at one time or another, except the ones who were too busy acting like extra brothers and trying to sneak frogs into my sock drawer, and none of them feel... right. Perhaps it's foolish of me to hold out for romance, but..."

"But it's what you grew up with," he finished for her, gently. "The Tenth was very fortunate in love. I imagine few bosses can really say that."

"What a tactful way to tell me to give it up," she murmured, and waved a hand at his sterner look. "I know my duty, Fedele. And I'll do it. But it is what I grew up with. Even Uncle Gokudera and Aunt Haru. Even Uncle Yamamoto and Uncle Hibari, for God's sake!"

"Well, if you look at it that way, I suppose you could expand your search, if the young men are insufficient," he mused. "Children would be a bit more difficult, but still..."

Mari nearly spit a mouthful of coffee across the room and barely managed to choke it down so she could laugh herself breathless. "Oh, imagine people's faces!" She wiped her eyes and sat back. "Ah, I needed that."

"You looked like it," he agreed, smiling faintly. "Try not to worry too much about it. Sooner or later it will solve itself."

"Or some new problem will come along to distract me at least." Mari chose another pastry, chuckling.

"Mari, can I have a moment?"

Mari looked up from handing her coat to the housekeeper, surprised to see the sturdy, serious man waiting in the entry hall. "Irie-san! Of course." She waved Mamoru to follow and nodded to Rei. "Tell Father I'll be in in just a moment to report about the Catania holdings."

Rei brushed her jacket smooth over her shoulder holster and nodded soberly. "Yes, Mari."

Mari spared her cousin and Rain's earnestness a smile as she led Mamoru and Irie to one of the hall parlors. "What's up, Irie-san?" she asked, pulling up a chair to the room's low table, aware of Mamoru leaning by one of the windows.

"I wanted to speak with you." Irie seated himself more deliberately, the way he did everything that wasn't an emergency. "I'm considering retiring when Tsuna does."

Mari sat back, startled, this being the first she'd heard of any such idea. "Then CEDEF..."

"I'll stay as long as I'm needed," Irie assured her. "I just thought... well, if you have any idea who you might want as your outside advisor after me..."

"Then I could be thinking about it." Mari smiled wryly. "I see."

"It isn't that I'm not happy, serving the Vongola," Irie said quietly.

"But Father is special to you." Mari firmly stomped on a flicker of inadequacy; this was hardly the first time she'd had to deal with standing in the shadow of the Tenth. "No, I do understand." But who on earth could she call on to serve as the leader of CEDEF, to be her advisor?

Irie smiled a little, apparently seeing the question written in the air above her head. "There's no urgency, if you can't think of anyone yet."

"I can't, offhand," Mari admitted. "Someone who's inside and outside at the same—" She broke off, thoughts arrested. "Hm."

"A thought after all?" Irie's brows rose.

"Hm." Mari stood and paced the room twice. Finally she turned back toward Irie, hands clasped behind her. "Irie-san, advise me," she ordered, intent. "What characteristics do you think are most needed in the outside advisor?"

Irie sat back, eyes sharp. "I would say... detachment," he said after a moment.

Mari crooked her fingers at him, beckoning. "Say more."

"The leader of CEDEF must be able to know everything that goes on in the Family, be prepared at any moment to step in if he's called on or there's an emergency, and yet never do so unless he is called or a true emergency exists." Irie's mouth quirked. "It isn't always easy."

"Detachment," Mari repeated slowly. "Yes." She smiled slowly. "Perhaps I do have a thought for this. I'll just have to convince him it's a good idea. That will be the hard part." She paused, considering. "One of the hard parts. The first hard part, anyway."

Irie laughed. "Somehow, I doubt that will stop you."

"Of course not." Mari smiled at him brightly. And sometimes her father's shadow, and her mother's too, supported instead of stifling.

Irie excused himself and Mari started back to make her delayed report, Mamoru at her shoulder.

"You're thinking of Fedele Rizzo, aren't you?" he asked, quietly.

"Like I said, there will be hard parts."

He snorted. "My sister, the master of understatement."

She stopped and looked up at him, serious. "It feels right, Mamoru. Right for Vongola and right for him. He advises me well already, and we owe him both respect and peace."

"This might not give him either." Mamoru's eyes were dark. "Nor give them to you."

"Perhaps. But this is what I owe him." Her shoulders straightened with the inner certainty that was still fairly rare for her. "And this is what he owes me, as the Vongola."

One breath and Mamoru smiled. "Yes, Boss."

Mari smiled back. "Good! Let's go report to Father, then. And after..." she narrowed her eyes at the future, "...after, I think I'll want to talk to Kazuya about strategy."

Fedele stared at her, coffee halfway to his lips. "You can't possibly be serious."

Mari hadn't really needed Kazyua to tell her that this would be the first response. "I'm quite serious." She folded her hands on the table between them, gaze level. Fedele set his cup down with a clack.

"Mari, just for starters, I'm too old! You'd have to choose another advisor in the middle of your tenure, and that isn't something you want to do."

Reluctance she understood, but this she wouldn't put up with. "It's my business to decide what I do and don't want to do," she rapped out. "Your business is to advise me on the consequences, but that is all."

He sat back sharply and Mari let her tone soften. "If I have to choose someone new later on, then I will. Right now I think you are the best choice, and that's all that matters."

"Not quite all." His voice was calmer, quieter, but still stubborn.

"If you truly do not wish to serve the Vongola this way, then say so and I won't speak of it again. But," Mari leveled a finger at him, "you had better have more of a reason that 'it will cause talk'."

"It will cause talk," he muttered, but he hadn't refused yet and that was progress. Mari gathered her cards and laid them out.

"You are older, and that means you have perspective that my Family so far doesn't. You've seen how the Family operates both as a foot soldier and as the right hand of the heir. And," she finished quietly, "none of the other positions your loyalty and service should have earned you will make you happy."

"My service failed," he said harshly, eyes shadowed in the low afternoon light through the kitchen windows.

"It did not," Mari told him flatly. "You were defeated. Your boss was killed. But your service did not fail. Not then and not since." The way he flinched from her words didn't make her any happier, but she refused to leave them unsaid. "You have not left us. In face of all the idiot tongues wagging about how you must have been in conspiracy with Xanxus to live through the attack, you stayed. You kept faith with us. You served. Tell me who better I could possibly name as my outside advisor?" She reached across the table and touched his arm. "Who else has better earned the right to both guide and stand free of the Vongola?"

He ran a hand over his face, eyes squeezed shut. "God you sound like Federico, when he got into one of his Vongola moods."

"Blood tells, I suppose," she murmured, mouth quirked.

He looked up at her, and she was satisfied to see the tight lines around his eyes easing just a little. "I won't say anything else idiotic, then, like 'are you really sure'."

Mari laughed. "Good. Much more of that and I'd have had to get a little annoyed."

He looked down at his hands and fetched in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "It's a hell of a job, sometimes. But I'll do it for you."

Mari took a nice deep breath of her own. "Thank you."

Catching her father alone took a lot more ingenuity. In the end, she and Mamoru picked the least contentious meeting that month and hoped to cage some time at the end of it.

That meant, of course, sitting through the meeting instead of walking out the instant one of the Colli under-bosses smiled fatuously at her and called her "our young Eleventh" with his hand on the Colli son's shoulder. Mari had never gone out with Pino herself but Fiorela had, and her report had not inclined Mari to him. Even if he hadn't been making the most ridiculous cow's eyes at her.

"You're not actually considering him, are you?" Uncle Gokudera asked, after the Colli left, looking dubious.

"God no!" Mari shuddered. "At this rate, I may never marry at all. I'll go into a convent as soon as Daisuke's boy is old enough."

"I take it you had another reason for being so forbearing, then?" her father murmured. Mari ignored the twitching at the corners of his mouth and leaned back, folding her hands on her knee.

"I do." Mamoru drifted over to stand at her shoulder, making his support evident. "Irie-san has said he would like to retire when you do, so I've been thinking who I might want as my own outside advisor."

"Ah." Father straightened. "Have you found someone?"

"Fedele Rizzo."

Father and Uncle Gokudera both blinked at her for a moment. "He's older than we are," Uncle Gokudera pointed out.

"All the more experience in my service, then." Mari felt a little the way she did facing Uncle Hibari on the practice floor, poised and waiting, taut with not knowing what would come but knowing she could respond to whatever it was. That, more than anything, told her she was choosing rightly in this.

"Mari," Father said quietly, "are you sure you aren't letting sympathy color a business judgment?"

"Yes, I am." She lifted her chin. "I wouldn't call it sympathy, though. Call it compassion."

Father's mouth quirked. "And I an hardly object to that, hm?"

"Of course you can object." She shrugged. "But why would you?"

"Because you will already be facing tensions enough as a woman in charge of the Vongola Family, and taking someone there are still rumors about as your outside advisor will only add to that."

Mari looked at her father for a long moment and finally recognized what was lurking under the sharpness of his eyes: worry. "Are you sure you aren't letting your concern for me color a business judgment?" she asked softly.

Father opened his mouth and closed it again with a sigh. "Perhaps," he allowed. And then he tilted his head and looked at her curiously. "Have you actually spoken to Fedele about this?"

"Of course I have. He agrees."

Father and Uncle Gokudera looked at each other, brows raised. "Well," Father said at last. "If you've convinced the sun to rise in the west already, I don't see where it's my business to stop you now."

"Which just leaves the rest of the Family," Uncle Gokudera murmured.

"I'll deal with it," Mari said firmly. "My Family and I."

"Hm." Father gazed out the window for a long moment and finally nodded. "All right. I approve this. But only," he held up a finger, "if you can bring enough of the Vongola to agree to be sure it doesn't cause waves that will weaken us."

Mari stood, shoulders straight. "Of course."

She had considered doing it her mother's way, by smiling and chatting lightly to people who knew the people whose minds she wanted to change.

Then she had considered doing it her father's way, by speaking directly, quietly, earnestly to the underbosses, the hitmen, the allied bosses.

In the end, though, she decided to do it her way.

She did wait for the next garden party, at least, instead of doing it in the next alliance meeting. And perhaps she did take a small hand with the invitation list, and make sure that the Grecav, the Iveco, Carlo Stanguellini, and Bruno Ansaldo were all there. And may be she did ask Fiorela to leak just the tiniest rumor, beforehand, that she was considering Fedele for her advisor. There was no sense in not using all the tools available to her.

The hardest part, actually, was making sure Uncle Xanxus would be there. Fortunately, he approved of her in somewhat the same way Uncle Hibari did, and was stalking the edges of the gathering in his shirtsleeves with a glass of something a lot stronger than the punch in hand. Mari kept half an eye on him as she listened to the Iveco boss hold forth on the need for absolutely trustworthy advisors, especially for young women, and kept a white-knuckled grip on her temper while she waited for Stanguellini to join them. Ansaldo was already shadowing Xanxus with a faint, stubborn frown on his face, and the Grecav were just one terrace down, close enough to hear everything.

"...and we must all be able to have absolute confidence in someone with the power of the Vongola's outside advisor," Iveco lectured, and Mari womanfully refrained from baring her teeth at him. Ah, here was Stanguellini at last.

"I'm sure the Eleventh will make the best possible choice," he said to Iveco firmly, coming up beside her, and she'd have appreciated the support more if he hadn't turned that earnest and respectful face to her and added, "We know that you'll take the feelings of the Family into account, ma'am."

Mari's tactical sense, trained year after year by Hibari and Lal and Xanxus, by living with one eye always on the shadows for the glint of a weapon, tingled in her fingertips; this was it. She frowned thoughtfully. "I hear what you're saying," she said, rather more carryingly than she normally would. "So you're still concerned by the possibility that Fedele Rizzo colluded with Xanxus in Federico's death?" Those nearest quieted for a moment and glanced over at their little group.

"Well, there were never any witnesses, ma'am," Stanguellini murmured. "And he did survive..."

Mari tapped her lips with a finger. "Well, you know, that's not exactly true. That there weren't any witnesses, I mean." While the two men blinked at her she turned and leaned over the stone rail, waving a hand. "Uncle Xanxus!"

He looked up at her from across most of the gathering, mouth in a sardonic twist. "Yeah?"

"Were you and Fedele working together, when you killed Federico?"

Dead silence fell over the party and everyone turned to stare. Mari continued to look brightly inquiring, though she could see her father, from the corner of his eye, putting a hand over his face.

Xanxus snorted explosively. "Fuck no. What kind of idiot thinks I need help killing anyone I damn well go after?" He glared at Iveco and Stanguellini, who turned a little pale.

Mari waved a casual hand. "No, no, I think people just wondered because Fedele lived."

A corner of Xanxus mouth curled up in a sneer. "What, I should have taken time to finish off the small fry when he was down? He wasn't my target." A stir rippled through the gathering, remembering that Xanxus led the Varia, their pride and their long record of perfect success.

"Yes, I thought so myself." Mari nodded agreeably, and turned back to Iveco. "So there you have it, from the one person who has to know for sure, right?" She smiled at him and then down at the Grecav. "I'm sure that takes care of any doubts." She turned her smile on Stanguellini and then Ansaldo, letting it turn harder.

Stanguellini swallowed. "Yes, ma'am."

She turned back to Iveco, who still seemed to be speechless. "And I hear you're opening up some interests in Catanzaro! Tell me, how is that going?"

"Ah. It's... it's going well. Yes." The man looked at her like he'd never seen her before and maybe, Mari thought as she chatted about business, maybe he hadn't really.

It looked like that had probably changed, though.

"That wasn't quite what I had in mind, when I said you should gain the Family's support," her father said dryly, leaning back in an armchair.

"If you wanted to set limits on my methods, you should have said." Mari crossed her legs and took another sip of her wine. "There are no more doubts about Fedele's loyalty running around, are there?"

"No, I think you broke the kneecaps of every last one."

Mari nodded, satisfied. "Good."

Father looked helplessly at Mother, who shrugged, smiling faintly. "Mari grew up in this world," she pointed out. "And you can't fault the care she takes of her people."

Shin looked up from his perch in the window seat where he was reading a letter from his latest girlfriend in the last sunlight. "It's Mari, Dad, what did you expect? She's like that."

"Not sure that was a compliment, but thanks all the same," Mari told her brother, who grinned at her.

"Mari?" Mamoru looked in the door, and Mari was instantly suspicious of the bland look on his face. "You have a visitor."

Fedele stepped in after him and Mari brightened. "Oh, good, I wanted to tell you—"

"That you asked Xanxus to confirm my 'innocence', which he did in the most insulting manner possible in front of half the Vongola alliance?" Fedele crossed his arms. "Yes, I've heard. From nearly everyone who spoke to me in the past three days."

Mari winced. "Hell. I wanted to get to you first, before the rumors got around."

"You'd have needed a teleporter."

Mari sighed. "Yes, I suppose so." She set her wine aside and looked up at him, seriously. "It was something that should have been done decades ago, and wasn't. I understand why you never wanted to, but it let the rumors of your complicity get entrenched, and I figured I needed the biggest hammer I could lay hands on to shift them permanently."

A corner of his mouth twitched. "That was certainly a very big hammer," he allowed.

"I am sorry I didn't think to warn you," she said penitently. "I should have."

"What, and give me a chance to talk you out of it?" he murmured. "Perish the thought."

She smiled. "To give you time to prepare yourself. Don't worry, you wouldn't have talked me out of it."

A snort of laughter escaped and Fedele leaned on one of the sturdy, wing back chairs, running a hand through his hair. "You really do remind me of him."

"Will that be a problem?" she asked, quietly.

He sighed and smiled down at her wryly. "Not the way you mean it. I imagine it will be other kinds of problems, but we'll deal with that as we have to."

She downright glowed at him until Mamoru ruffled her hair. "You deserved that," he declared.

"Which is why you brought him up here, yes, I know." She smacked his hand away. "I don't know why I ever thought giving you more chances to say 'I told you so' was good idea."

"I'm very glad you've agreed to support Mari," Father interjected, speaking to Fedele but giving the two of them the 'now, children' look that never seemed to wear out even when some of them had kids of their own.

"Yes," Fedele answered quietly. "I think I am too."

"Well, at least the allied Families have stopped running on about getting me married off. That's something." Mari nibbled a cookie and sighed.

Stefano Cavallone looked up from the corner where he'd been having a lively discussion with his sister about whether he needed to break the hands of Storero's second son for trying to put them up Fiorela's dress. "Shouldn't you sound happier about that?" he asked curiously.

Mari bit down more sharply, scattering crumbs over her desk and the papers that covered it. "There's always something," she growled.

"Now Mari." Fedele crossed an ankle over his knee looking ridiculously at ease. "You knew you'd have to give up my kitchen when you convinced me to serve as your advisor."

Mari made a grumpy sound into her coffee cup. Mario had avoided today's meeting too, the rat; she supposed it did take some practice to get used to having business meetings with your dad but if she could do it surely he could.

"At least your mother's Lucia still made pastries for us," Fedele pointed out, so blandly Mari knew she was being teased.

"Wait, so, Mari's upset that you're not having this meeting in the Rizzo kitchen?" Stefano asked his sister.

"It's just nice to get away from the House now and then," Mari answered for herself, and Fiorela smiled wryly.

"Come on, Stef, you've seen Dad sneaking out of our place to go spar with Hibari. I figure it's pretty much the same thing."

Stefano cocked his head at Mari. "What's keeping you from it, then?"

Mari took another sip and sighed. "It wouldn't be good if rumor got around that the Eleventh relies too much on the opinion of her outside advisor. I've just been to a good deal of trouble to squash one set of rumors, I'd prefer if we could avoid another right away."

Stefano leaned his elbow on the back of his sister's chair and smiled at her gently. "Okay. But is there any reason you can't visit a friend more often than that?"

Mari opened her mouth and closed it again. "...oh."

Fiorela gave her brother an approving look. "You're not as dumb as you look, you know."

"Runs in the Family," he said innocently and dodged her (mostly) play-punch, laughing.

"Deliver your message and get out of here," Fiorela told him, settling back in her chair with a sisterly glower.

Still grinning, Stefano turned to Mari. "Dad says to tell the Vongola Tenth that the Cizeta are giving the Valetti the cold shoulder lately, and he thinks it means the Valetti interests on the west coast are failing."

Mari nodded briskly, drawn back to business. "I'll tell him. That matches with some moves the Orsini have been making lately."

Stefano nodded in turn. "I'll tell him."

Mari leaned back in her chair as Fiorela saw, or chased, her brother out, nibbling thoughtfully on a pastry. "I'm kind of surprised the Orsini aren't cutting their alliance with the Valetti, though," she mused. "They're such rampant opportunists. I wonder if the Valetti are letting the west coast interests go entirely. Fedele, have you heard any thing about this?"

"Hm." Fedele turned back from watching Stefano go. "Nothing yet. If they are, they're keeping it quiet."

"As they would. Fiorela." Mari leaned her elbows on her desk, ignoring the crumbs still scattered over it. "I want you to look into this."

Business swept them along and Mari forgot to ask what Fedele had found so interesting about Stefano's departure.

Fedele detached himself from Irie's side and drifted across the room to fetch up discreetly by Mari. She had to admire how smilingly unobtrusive he managed to be. Federico had chosen well, and she thought she had too. The Family was definitely coming around to her way of thinking, as they watched him, and the other Families... well, if any of them harbored doubts or plots she was sure Kazuya could entertain himself with them.

"You've spent a lot of time talking to Stefano Cavallone this evening," Fedele murmured, and then she had to be annoyed at how apparently oblivious even the best advisor could be. Men!

She was going to have that made up into a flashcard she could just carry around with her.

"He's the only one here it's safe to talk to." She hid her snarl behind her wineglass. "Our allies might have backed off a little, but everyone else is still aiming their sons at me like the latest in guided missiles. Thank God Uncle Dino always had more sense than that."

"Hm." He looked at her sidelong and then out over the room where the careful steps of mafia manners were being danced. "You don't think your attention might be mistaken for something else?"

"Not by now." Relaxing a little in the safety of that assurance, Mari smiled over at the table where Stefano was talking with Lanz Furetto, nodding and smiling just as though he'd never called Lanz crawling vermin in his life. "Stefano's practically been family since we were little, and the other Families know Vongola and Cavallone have recent blood ties. He's one of the only men of our world I've managed to actually be friends with." When she turned back Fedele was looking at her oddly and she asked, "What?"

He opened his mouth and closed it again. At last he said in the mild tone of voice that meant he thought she was missing something obvious, "A friendship seems like a better basis for a marriage than missiles, don't you think?"

It took every year of experience and every bit of her mother's teaching Mari had ever had to keep from choking on her mouthful of wine. She stared at the far wall and breathed carefully until she could manage to swallow. Then she looked at Fedele and hissed, "Stefano?!"

Fedele took a measured sip. "Unless I'm very mistaken," he said softly, "Stefano Cavallone likes you very much and has for some time. You can ask Mamoru if you think I'm imagining it," he added, as Mari just stared at him. "I would bet he's seen it too."

Mari stared for another moment, trying to fit her friend Stefano into the mental space of "suitor" and completely failing.

"You seem to like him too," her clearly insane advisor murmured.

"I like him fine, but that's... that's..." Mari didn't feel she had quite the right words for how that was different from everything that courting seemed to involve. Fedele just lifted his brows and flicked his eyes in Stefano's direction.

Stefano had shaken off Lanz and was strolling back towards them. "Holding up all right?" he asked under his breath, setting one of the two plates in his hands down beside her. It held, she noticed, mostacciolli cookies, her favorite out of those set out tonight.

"Yes," she murmured, distracted. "I'm fine."

He tipped his head at the angle that meant "Are you sure?" and when had she learned that? Years ago. She gave him back the tiny, provisional, "Yes, for now" nod and he settled himself firmly at her elbow, nudging the cookies closer.

She was positive Fedele was trying not to laugh.

Stefano was one of her oldest friends.

Stefano had played with her when she was little.

"Mari?"

Stefano had been her escort to her second public event, after the absolute disaster of the first one, and had helped her sneak extra sweets.

"Nee-san?"

Stefano had listened to her complaining about the boys from other Families, and sympathized, and never once suggested a date or a kiss or any such thing.

"Mari?" Haruka tapped on her forehead. "Knock, knock; anyone home?"

Mari started and looked around the room at her family. "Huh? What is it?"

"That was kind of our question," Haruka observed wryly. "What are you thinking about so hard?"

Mari hesitated for a long moment and finally sighed. Her brothers were going to find out sooner or later anyway, and thank goodness none of them were teenagers any more was all she could say. She looked over at Mamoru, sprawled on a couch with a book and asked, "Okay. Do you really think Stefano likes me?"

Mamoru propped himself up on an elbow, brightening. "Hey, you noticed!"

Mari gave him a long look. "I guess that's a yes." She ran a distracted hand over her hair, tugging strands loose from her clip. "Fedele mentioned it."

"Sounds like you really did choose a good advisor," Haruka murmured, leaning against the wall beside her window seat.

"But he's never said anything about it!" Mari protested.

Later she would remember the thoughtful look Kazuya gave her and the quiet way he slipped out of the room.

"Well, yeah, he's not stupid," Shin put in. "He's seen what you do with the guys who do mention it." He mimed dropping an object from a height and made crashing sounds.

"Very eloquent," Haruka said, chuckling. "Also accurate."

"Well they're all such a pain in the ass about it," Mari muttered. Haruka held up his hands.

"No arguments from us Nee-san. Just, you have to figure, Stefano noticed how much you don't like dealing with that, and respected your wishes."

"I guess so," Mari said quietly, winding her arms around her knees.

Her brothers looked at each other. "So how are the holdings in Napoli doing?" Haruka asked Mamoru. "You just visited, right?"

Mari smiled a little as they turned the conversation to other things, business and teasing Shin about his latest girlfriend and whether they should get a puppy for Daisuke's son's birthday. Her brothers could be as annoying as any siblings, but they were always there for her.

She had cause to remember that thought two hours later, after their parents had joined them, when Stefano appeared in the doorway, out of breath.

"Mari?"

"Stef." Talking about someone could not actually summon them up, therefore... "Is Fiorela all right?"

"Huh? Yes, of course she is." He took a hesitant step in. "I... I came to see you."

"You..." Mari caught Mamoru giving Kazuya a thumbs up and glared at her brothers. "You," she said in a very different tone.

"It was just a matter of the right timing, Nee-san," Kazyua told her calmly. "Now is the right time."

Mari firmly ignored Shin's mutter of about time and give Stefano a helpless shrug. What could you do about siblings, killing them all being out of the question? Stefano grinned.

"Well. I think we already got pretty far, all these years, without making it official. I guess we should do this properly, now." He glanced at her father.

"Oh no," Mari groaned, instantly besieged by memories of idiots who tried to court her parents instead of her, "no, we shouldn't."

"I don't think we're thinking of the same properly." Stefano pulled his shoulders back and took a deep breath. "Let's try this." He came to her and she stared, eyes widening, as he knelt down at her feet and took her hand. "Sawada Mari, I love you," he said, soberly, looking up at her. "And it would be my honor to support the eleventh Boss of the Vongola. Will you marry me? Or at least," he added, a little less certainly, when she kept staring at him, "think about it?"

Mari laughed, breathless, and closed her fingers on his. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll think about it." From the way he relaxed, she figured he'd probably heard what she really meant. Stefano usually did.

He looked back over at her parents, a little wary again. "You, ah, do approve, right?"

Mari's parents broke out laughing, which Mari felt rather detracted from the mood of the moment. "Yes, we do," her mother told them, finally. "As long as you make her happy," her father added.

"I'll do my very best, sir," Stefano said, very serious, and Mari rolled her eyes and pulled him up to actually sit beside her.

"He already makes me happy," she told her family sternly, "or I wouldn't have said yes." Stefano had pretty much always made her happier when he was around.

Maybe her advisor wasn't completely crazy after all.

Uncle Dino was looking so smug Mari was starting to seriously consider asking Uncle Hibari to visit, just to wipe that expression off him. Fortunately for her soon-to-be father-in-law, Uncle Hibari's people didn't know where he was this month.

"I hope your next advice to me is less earth-shaking," she murmured to Fedele, watching the allies and associates milling around, some still looking shocked, many having progressed to indignant, and none of them looking especially congratulatory.

"When I'm working for you? I don't see how it could be."

"Pessimist."

"I would have said optimist."

Mari grinned, eyes still on the guests.

"You two deserve each other," Mamoru told them, shaking his head. "Ah. Here's your real escort." He stepped back to let Stefano take the place at Mari's side. Fedele nodded to Stefano and stepped back as well.

"I don't think I've ever been congratulated so sourly," Stefano informed her under his breath, eyes laughing.

"Yes, well, they all think you got the big prize." Mari cast a dry look over the crowd.

"Which of course I did." Stefano lifted her hand and kissed it. "Just not the way they're thinking."

"I am too old to be blushing," she muttered, blushing anyway.

"So is it true, what Mamoru said, that Fedele Rizzo was the one who started you thinking of me?"

Mari smiled ruefully. "I chose him for his wisdom and experience. I got that all right."

"I'll have to remember to do something very nice for him, then," Stefano murmured.

Mari looked back at her advisor, at the straightness of his shoulders as he moved through the crowd, remembering the withdrawn man she'd first set out to drag back into life and honor. "I hope we have already."

Stefano smiled at her, pleased and proud. "You'll be the best Boss."

Mari lifted her chin as she looked out over the gathering, hand closing tight around his. "Damn right." She would be, because she had her Family behind her, and her friend beside her, and a man of such loyalty that even despair couldn't shake it watching over them. Throughout the room, disgruntled expressions melted to blankness under the weight of her eyes. "We're the Vongola.

"This is our world."

End